Life (and this forum) is what we make it.

[grampa dan]

I live in a wonderful town. I believe its one of the better towns around.

But in the last weeks I have been disturbed by what I see in the paper - especially on the front page. Without fail, the pages are full of bad things, drug busts, shootings, murder, accusations of wrongdoing and such. We all know those things happen here, and just about everywhere it seems. My beef is that we seem to concentrate so much on the negative. Why put the worst on the front page? Why give the bad guys so much front page ink? So much energy (and resources) are spent building fear in our lives.

The news on TV is no better. Even seemingly minor incidences are blown into major events. Bad guys dominate primetime.

On this forum and all the others too, the negative stories seem to get the biggest response. Have someone take advantage of you - post it here and it will get discussed for days, often with lots of suggestions of more wrongs you could do in return. What does it solve? How does it make our lives better? How does it enrich the lives of those we interact with?

Imagine what would happen if we chose to simply ignore these posts and instead concentrate on items that built up our brothers and sisters and the craft in general.

Bad stuff will always happen. People will steal, fight or worse. So be it. Why can't that stuff be printed in the back sections of the news. Why can't we instead celebrate the good things that happen each day to all of us? Ignore the crap. Celebrate and encourage the good. Console those that weep, but also take the time to dance with those who are happy, who have achieved a goal.

Life would be so much better.

-grampa dan

 

[Letterbox Mike]

Best post in a long time!

 

[iSign]

I think grampa Dan is such a great title for you dan... while we are about the same age, you remind me of my own grampa in one important way.

My grandfather (the one I was fortunate enough to know well) was the most ethical gentleman & if he were watching me through life... many better choices would have been made...

This is going to sound odd I suppose, but since you are an extremely positive person, who I have had the good fortune to meet & call a friend... as you have become more common in the list of "friends" online around here, I've become more self conscious of my own dabbling with those front page train wrecks...

Grampa is watching... I think that will be a very good mantra for me in 2011!!

Thanks for the great advice & words of wisdom!

 

[Colin]

Many things can be explained in evolutionary terms, and this, I suggest, is one of them. We apes are social creatures. In a group, it serves us well individually and as a group to know who is the one engaged in negative, selfish, counterproductive behaviour. Now, with unimaginably efficient technological tools of communication at our avail, we use them to rat out the culprit.

That, I believe, is why we beat the drum so loudly on the bad guys.

 

[gabagoo]

Unfortunately bad news sells......


I remember after 9/11 I was glued to CNN for months....never had much interest in anything else until it all died down

 

[WildWestDesigns]

In a group, it serves us well individually and as a group to know who is the one engaged in negative, selfish, counterproductive behaviour.

It's all about preservation. Unfortunately, "if it bleeds, it leads".

 

[mikey-Oh]

love this grandpa dan, life's too short to sweat the small stuff

 

[SqueeGee]

I, too, am inspired with how Dan always leads with the positive and sees the good in things/people. Thanks, Dan!

 

[John L]

You're not alone Dan. I feel the same way.

 

[copythat]

Thanks for post

This is the very reason I don't read the papers or watch the news. Why give them what they are looking for. Publicity! They don't care about anything else but to sell papers and advertisements. I have a reputation of being the one to come to for help. Missing animals, they know to come to me I don't charge for the copies. 45th precinct come to me for missing people signs. No way can I charge even though they allocate funds for this. I donate so much print to cancer or fund raisers. My mother is presently going through chemotherapy.

I do this just so there is a outlet where one can come for help.



Sign Up!

 

[Gino]

This is such a true thought progression grampa......

In 1989, my mother-in-law passed away. She lived with us and was so much fun. I enjoyed her stories and other meaningful insights. She only went to the 6th grade, but was smarter than most people I know and not just street smarts. She was just great. Diabetes had gotten the best of her and she was a double amputee along with being legally blind, 400 in each eye and couldn't see out the center. It took her a whole day to read the newspaper and watch her soaps and do her chores around the house. She had chores because it gave her something to help with and be a part of each week. Anyway, in 1989 my wife said we'll have to start paying for the newspaper because she had been buying it. My answer was quick..... why do I want to pay money to see nothing but bad news around the world ?? Read the obituaries and the comics is all the thing was worth. All the important and needed news I could get from the radio and television if I needed to know something quickly. To this day, we still don't buy it and when I do pick one up, it's the same old crap it's been for the last 5 decades.

I get a kick out of the news channels when they say... Okay, and now for our ONE good article of the day and its about some dog that did something neat or some child that was amazing..... it's never normal aged adults.... it's always the unsuspecting dogs that pull at a person's heartstrings and get you all undone.

Television is a joke. If it ain't sex or killing... it ain't selling..... anywhere.

 

[dlndesign]

Agreed Grampa Dan!

 

[signswi]

People still watch the news? On a TV? You are a Grandpa!

Fear is a primary sales technique, being an informed consumer and realizing you're being manipulated into buying something is important, same goes for the news.

 

[threeputt]

Your central question about why we all seem to be so very interested in what the baddies are doing is indeed evolutionally rooted.

Just as Colin points out.

It is much, much more advantageous to know there is a sabre tooth tiger in the village than that someone in the village has succeeded in growing the largest turnip anyone can remember.

The point is simple. Dangerous bad guys are far more likely to disrupt your life than the news that a certain church fed fifty homeless people.

That's why the newspapers are full of the rough stuff. We all read those stories. Sure, we'll also read about bake sales, benefits, human interest stories that make us smile, etc.

But not the front page usually.

 

[Jillbeans]

the negative stories seem to get the biggest response. Have someone take advantage of you - post it here and it will get discussed for days, often with lots of suggestions of more wrongs you could do in return. What does it solve? How does it make our lives better?

I know it makes me feel better to blow off steam when someone rips me off or angers me.
I talk about it here, with my peers, and it's instant therapy.
We comiserate and we might make lame suggestions but I doubt anyone really follows up on them.

Before when I only went to Letterville, and I talked about not having any work, almost everyone acted like if I would just develop a niche market I would magically be rich.
Or it was all about my attitude, I even had someone from Lville phone me and tell me to get a counselor.
I was just broke and scared.
It's hard to be all roses and sunshine when you don't know where your next meal is coming from.
I was literally that broke.
There was NO work no matter what I did or how charming or creative I was.
Now on Lville when someone posts about not having work, it's group hug time because nobody else has work either.

Luckily I do have work now.
It caused me to have to quit the temporary job I got because I was so broke.
With work came the return of creativity and a better attitude.
The world is indeed a harsh place and bad things happen.
But just as many good things occur with less attention.
I like to see a good train wreck of a topic now and then.
I also like the feel good stuff.
Everything in moderation.
Love.....Jill

 

[Colin]

Catharsis.

 

[kgirl]

I just come for the gossip and trash.....could you imagine if the soaps were clean?

 

[Stevo]

Look out signs101!!
You are about to be infiltrated by Grampa Dan on his speech podium, talking about life, himself, his router, and veiling it as "inspiration". When in fact, it is nothing but wanting attention to stroke an already massive ego.
Nobody likes a bully.

 

[threeputt]

Huh?

 

[grampa dan]

Can't win them all.

I probably should just sit quiet but I couldn't resist.

One of these days I'd really like to sit down with Stevo, buy him a coca cola maybe or a beer if that is what he prefers and have a nice long chat. I'll bet once we sat down to talk, face to face, we could be good friends. He might even get what I'm really about.

Stevo does awesome work which I admire. Take a look at his website and I'm sure you will agree.

I do wish him the very best - even if the feeling isn't mutual.

-grampa dan